Lead Architect - Card Systems and Data Architecture

Lead Architect – Card Systems and Data Architecture

Wells Fargo is seeking a Lead Architect – Card Systems and Data Architecture in our Architecture & Engineering Group as part of Consumer Technology. Learn more about the career areas and business divisions at

In this role, you will lead the definition and execution of architecture strategy supporting the Cards business, partnering with cross-functional teams to deliver secure, scalable, resilient, and highly available solutions that support key business outcomes. You will provide end-to-end architecture accountability across card platforms, data ecosystems, integrations, and application components while ensuring alignment with enterprise standards, regulatory requirements, and strategic business objectives.

You will define and drive target-state architectures spanning card processing systems, midrange application platforms, APIs, event-driven architectures, and modern data ecosystems—including lakehouse, data mesh, knowledge graphs, and real-time streaming platforms. This role requires deep expertise across business, application, system, and data architecture domains, with a focus on designing integrated solutions that enable card servicing, transaction processing, customer experiences, analytics, reporting, and AI-driven capabilities.

Success in this role requires close collaboration across product, engineering, infrastructure, operations, and architecture teams to establish strategic solutions and technology roadmaps.

In this role, you will:

• Lead the implementation of complex projects and strategic initiatives that have company wide scope, providing end-to-end architecture accountability from concept through implementation.
• Assist in the creation of architectural artifacts and target-state architectures for key technology and business initiatives.
• Participate in the definition of future technology architecture and strategy across applications, platforms, systems, data domains, and enterprise technology landscapes.
• Identify medium to high architectural impact projects and contribute to technology investment decisions and strategic planning.
• Conduct complex technology, application, system, and data assessments to develop scalable architecture solutions and integration patterns across multiple platforms and technology domains.
• Communicate the company wide Architecture strategy and direction to management, systems-related teams, and cross-functional stakeholders, driving alignment across business, product, engineering, infrastructure, and operations teams.
• Make decisions in the development, governance, and maintenance of application, system, and data architectures.
• Understand compliance, resiliency, operational risk, technology risk management, and other regulatory requirements for supported areas.
• Ensure applications and platforms adhere to established Wells Fargo standards, policies, methodologies, and industry best practices.
• Collaborate and consult with peers, colleagues, managers, and partner organizations to resolve issues, define solutions, and achieve strategic business and technology goals.

Required Qualifications:

• 5+ years of Architecture experience, or equivalent demonstrated through one or a combination of the following: work experience, training, military experience, education
• 5+ years of experience designing enterprise-scale architecture solutions supporting card processing, servicing, payments, customer engagement, or related financial services platforms
• 5+ years of experience defining target-state architectures, technology roadmaps, and transition strategies across complex enterprise environments
• 5+ years of experience designing modern data architectures, including lakehouse, streaming, and event-driven platforms to support scalable data solutions
• 5+ years of experience building and optimizing data models and cloud-based data environments (Azure, AWS, or GCP) to enable reporting, analytics, and business insights
• 5+ years of experience developing data pipelines and integration processes, including ETL/ELT, orchestration tools, and implementing data governance and quality standards
• 5+ years of experience designing distributed systems, API-based…